The Kingston Hyper X Fury 240GB is a slim SSD able to fit in the anemic ultrabooks though it does ship with a 2.5mm adapter for systems which are a little more meaty. It uses the familiar Sandforce SF2281 controller and has changed to 128GBit ONFi 3 NAND from the previous ONFi 1 and 2 found in the V300 and the first Fury models. This NAND is slower at reads but at the same time it is also significantly more rugged, with a endurance rating of 641TB worth of writes. Hopefully Kingston learned from the reaction to its previous release of the V300 where review models were sent out with Toggle Mode NAND which was then switched for ONFi in the retail models. Hardware Canucks saw decent performance at a price in line with the market, but it is up to you to decide if you are willing to forgive Kingston and purchase this new SSD.

"Kingston has long been known as a company that caters to budget-minded buyers and that's exactly what their new HyperX Fury SSD does. However, this time performance is also a priority."

Allyn reviewed the ADTA SX900 back in February which might make you question why we are revisiting this drive in this [H]ard|OCP review. The reason lies in the controller as the SSD Al reviewed contained the SF-2281VB1-S0C while the drive [H] received contains a 2281VB2-SPC controller. [H] had many of the same worries as Al, with ancient firmware being the most relevant, with [H] specifically stating that '5.0.2a firmware does not have working TRIM functionality,' which should cause concern for anyone considering this drive. They also notived power usage above 10W which they felt was odd on a drive marketed as having improved power consumption and ended up unable to recommend this drive.

"The ADATA SX900 128GB SSD came to us with a surprise under the hood, the new B02 version of the SandForce SF-2281 controller. This new stepping is designed to provide revolutionary improvements in power efficiency with no loss of speed. We test the SX900 and the SF-2281VB2-SPC controller to see how it stacks up against the competition."

If you are looking for the speed of an SSD but can't afford one big enough to hold your OS and programs there are two main ways to work around this. The first is only available to Intel SandyBridge owners and that is Intel's SRT which allows you to use a mSATA SSD as a cache drive to speed up commonly used programs. The second is to pick up a hybrid SATA drive like the Seagate Momentus XT line, which does essentially the same thing but is compatible with most systems and is self contained. Techgage would like to remind you that there is a third choice, albeit perhaps more expensive than the other two; the OCZ RevoDrive 3 Hybrid PCIe SSD. This drive sports 1TB of HDD space and 128GB of flash memory split between two SandForce 2281 controllers and at a cost of $330 gives you a lot more space than a $330 SSD.

"SSDs are expensive and often don't offer enough capacity to meet user needs. The recent SSD caching craze attempts to alleviate both these issues, but OCZ has done one better. Combining a RevoDrive 3 with a 1TB HDD the RevoDrive Hybrid offers a self-contained SSD caching solution that is guaranteed to work."

Silicon Power have extended their lineup in a logical manner, with their familiarity with flash based storage it makes sense for them to move into SSDs. They've chosen proven parts, the SandForce SF2281 is a familiar SATA 6Gb/s controller as are the Intel branded flash chips that make up the 60GB of storage. As you would expect, similar components produce similar results, but since each manufacturer introduces some differences as do the parts inside the benchmarks for each SSD are slightly different but price remains the factor which most heavily impacts choice. If you are shopping for an SSD you should check Think Computers review of a drive from a brand you may not have previously considered.

"Silicon Power is not a name you really think about when you think about solid state drives. If you did not know Silicon Power was founded in 2003 and they mainly specialize in memory products. Today we are going to take a look at one of their first SATA 6GB/s drives the Velox Series V30. This drive is powered by the SandForce SF-2281 controller and boast speeds of 550MB/s read and 500MB/s write. Let’s check it out!"

The Tech Report has been investigating the OCZ 2.15 firmware update for their Sandforce SF2281 based SSDs. The firmware was released to fix several specific issues that users were encountering which caused BSODs or stuttering during normal usage. The testing was a little odd for The Tech Report, they certainly didn't see any BSODs after flashing to the new firmware, however they never saw any BSODs on their drives previously. A little investigation showed them a significant decrease in the number of people complaining about BSODs on forums which leads them to believe the firmware update is effective at what it does. Even better, the firmware has no real negative effect on the drives performance.

"SandForce SSDs have been dogged by reports of BSODs and other issues, but new firmware promises relief. We take a quick look at OCZ's recent 2.15 firmware update to see how it affects SSD performance and the BSOD bug."

Four companies with seven SSDs that all share the same controller were tested at X-bit Labs to see if there is any noticeable difference in their performance. The price per gigabyte varies on the different models as they all use slightly different flash memory as well as different interfaces. X-bit tries to come out with a general statement about performance and captures the heart when they state "SSDs with synchronous MLC NAND flash are generally faster but also more expensive whereas SSDs with asynchronous flash are cheaper and slower". That generalization doesn't quite capture the results fully however as even within those two categories there are some choices better than others. Check out the full review to see which drives came out on top.

Patriot's original foray into the SSD market was overshadowed by many other manufacturers releasing SSDs and did not get much stage time compared to Intel or OCZ for instance. This may change now that the community has realized it is the controller that makes the SSD, not the manufacturer. Their new 120GB Wildfire is a true SATA 6Gps drive and it features the high performing Sandforce SF-2281 controller. That isn't the only trick they have up their sleeves, though it means the drive costs more, they chose 32nm NAND over 25nm NAND which results in faster performance and possibly longer life which is in line with the three year warranty Patriot offers. Check out the actual performance over at Neoseeker.

"The Patriot WildFire is a 120GB SSD using the latest Sandforce SF-2281 controller, and 32nm MLC NAND memory. Together these components promise enterprise-level performance in a package priced for hardware enthusiasts. Hit our review to see if the WildFire can live up to its name, or if it ends up burning out prematurely."